Beauty, Mercy, Justice

A Perfect Song

Listening to this yesterday I realized just how perfect this song is. The orchestration, by Joe Boyd, does not overwhelm but complements Nick Drake’s bare bones fingerpicking: the soaring strings, the fluid bass, the intricate drumming. Perfect.

Yes indeed. I’ve long thought that the bass line if often what makes a great song. I can’t think of any bad song with a good bass line. This would have been a really nice song without it, but not a great one.

Have you ever heard Elliot Smith? He was sort of a 90’s incarnation of Nick Drake. Waltz #2 is my favorite song of his and it too is knocked out of the park by the sublime bass line (even though it’s just a six string guitar playing it). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2sfwky4RqQ